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With Silas’s prodding, the horse shifted and staggered to her hooves, wobbling and grunting, but at least she stayed upright. “Try to stop and let her drink from the river every so often.” She handed the rope over to Silas.
“Got it.” He tugged on the rope, encouraging the horse to take a few steps. “That’s it. You’ve got this.”
Tess stood back and watched him work with the horse. “I think she likes you.”
“I like her too.” And there was the smile she’d been hoping to see, softening his mouth. Oh, that mouth. If only she didn’t know how it felt to kiss him…
“In fact, I think she needs a name,” Silas continued. “Then we don’t have to keep calling her ‘the horse.’”
“Sure.” She knelt down to pack up her supplies because she shouldn’t be noticing Silas’s mouth. She shouldn’t be feeling that tingling warmth spread through her at the memory of kissing him. Not today. Not ever. “You can choose a name.”
“How about…” The man paused as though it were a big decision. “Legacy?” he finally said.
“I like it.” Tess lifted her bag and they moved slowly in the direction of the UTV. “I’ll meet you back at the ranch,” she told him. “We can get her settled and then go to the police before I pick up Willow and Morgan from school.”
“Sounds good.” Silas turned Legacy to the right and started to walk away.
Another burst of longing left her breathless. “Silas,” she called before she could stop herself. “Thanks for coming with me.”
The man stopped and slowly turned, tilting his head slightly. “I’ll always be there for you. I promised Jace.”
“I know.” And that was exactly why she couldn’t have feelings for him.
CHAPTER FOUR
You’re a champ, Legacy.” Silas paused to offer the horse a handful of the grasses and clover he’d ripped out of the ground on their way down the mountain.
She sniffed them halfheartedly but didn’t try to eat.
“Still hurting, aren’t you?” He dropped the greens and started off again, continuing at the slow methodical pace they’d kept all the way down the trail. Up ahead, the ranch came into view—the three red barns and Tess’s quaint log house, the miles of fencing and pens along the valley’s floor where the cattle grazed on the swaying grasses.
Strange that this view gave him a sense of coming home. No place had ever felt like home to him. Not the apartments he and his mom had lived in back in California, always moving from one to the next when she couldn’t pay the rent. Not the nondescript brick ranch house where he’d occasionally spent time with his grandparents when his mother wasn’t fighting with them… which hadn’t been very often.
He glanced at the horse’s tired brown eyes, feeling a weariness spread through him as well. “We’re kind of the same, you and I.” The ranch wasn’t his home. This place could never be his home. Tess would build a new life with someone, eventually. She had this big, bold, beautiful heart that would change some guy’s life. But it wouldn’t be his. “We’ve always gotta be on the move, don’t we? We can never settle down.” Much like this wild horse, Silas didn’t know a lot about relationships. He’d never known a father. And his mom hadn’t loved him. That’s why he could never love someone else. He didn’t even know how.
Legacy lumbered along, her hooves dragging slightly as they descended the final hill.
“I got shot once too.” He wasn’t sure why he was telling a horse, other than sustaining a gunshot wound happened to be yet another thing they had in common. He’d never told anyone else, but now his whole life story was spilling out. “It happened on my first mission.” Before he’d met Jace, Aiden, and Thatch. “The bullet went right through my shoulder.” He’d fallen in a pool of blood and had thought he was going to die right there on the battlefield.
After saying his prayers, he’d briefly wondered if his mom would even care, and then waited for the light or whatever the hell was supposed to come for him. Next thing he knew, a medic was dragging him through the sand. “It hurts like a son of a bitch, I know.” The blast through his flesh had seared his body with a burning pain he’d never forget. “But it’ll heal. Over time. And you’ll—”
“You made it!” Tess came charging over the crest of the hill on Dreamer’s back, her hair flying in the wind. “How’d it go? How’d Legacy do?” She halted Dreamer and dismounted. “I mean, it’s a good sign she was able to walk that distance. Has she seemed okay?”
“She’s been a trooper.” He ran his hand up and down Legacy’s muzzle. The key to forgetting sex with Tess was to never look directly into the woman’s eyes. Or to stand too close to her. Or to touch her in any way, shape, or form. One touch and he’d be a goner. “She even stopped to drink a few times. Though I haven’t been able to get her to eat anything.”
“We’ll work on that.” Tess slipped her hands beneath the horse’s chin groove and slightly lifted Legacy’s head to inspect the gunshot wound in her nose. “Still looks pretty clean. But we should flush it out a few times a day so there’s no bacteria buildup.”
“I can help out.” He and Legacy did have a bond, after all. Now the horse knew his secret. And he knew how it felt to be displaced the way she would have to be for a while.
“That would be great. I could use the help with her.” Tess took Dreamer by the bridle and they walked in the direction of the lower pastures. “I’ve got the large pen at the edge of the meadow all cleared out for her. I figure she needs some space. She’s not too used to fences and I don’t want her to feel too confined.”
“Good.” He tried to think of something else to say but being with Tess alone made it hard to think at all. “How long do you think we’ll have to keep her penned up?” That wasn’t a totally ridiculous question.
“It depends.” Tess didn’t seem to be her usual talkative self either.
“I guess until I’m confident there won’t be an infection,” she said after a pause. “When she’s in the clear, we can transport her back to the high meadow.” Her tone was all business, not soft and husky like it had been when she’d asked him to take her upstairs to his hotel room at the party. “Hopefully she’ll be able to rejoin her herd.”
They reached the fence and Tess pulled open the gate. “In you go.”
